• Wiki Requirements
• New - Standard Pages
• Wiki Dos and Don'ts
• Wiki Editing
• Perspectives from an iGEM veteran



• Using HTML, CSS, and Javascript

The iGEM Login Bar

All iGEM 2015 Team Wikis are required to have the iGEM Login Bar. The Login Bar includes essential links, tools, and information for all users: both wiki creators and viewers. The judges need these tools. Teams are not allowed to hide, disable, or alter the login bar, so please keep this in mind as you design your wiki. This is a new rule for 2015.

The iGEM Login Bar is a 20 pixel high, full-width menu bar that exists on all 2015.igem.org pages. It contains:

• iGEM related pages
• wiki tools (edit, history, watch, etc.)
• search tools
• team information (not released yet)
• login
• site menu

Standard Pages and links

We have created standard pages with static links for all awards and for most medal criteria. If your team wants to be evaluated for an award, you will need to document your achievements related to this award on a standard page.

Please read all about this big change on our new Standard Pages Page.

No Adobe Flash

Flash is not permitted on the iGEM 2015 wiki. Adobe flash is 100% proprietary and you cannot view the source like you can with our wiki. We chose wikis for teams to build their projects so the source code would be available for future teams, to build on the concept of open source. Flash can also be hosted on external sites and we want 100% of the content of our wikis to be on our wikis.

Host all content on 2015.igem.org

All team pages, images, documents and code must be hosted on the 2015.igem.org server. We preserve all iGEM content on our own servers so future teams can learn from what you have done. When you store content on your own sites or servers, after time, links might become broken, sites might go down, and information will be lost.

Additionally, hosting content outside of 2015.iGEM.org allows teams to change/add information to their wiki after the wiki freeze. Please note that altering content after the wiki freeze is a form of cheating.

Load your CSS and Javascript into the wiki, either directly into your page or using templates. Do not link to scripts or stylesheets that are hosted on other servers.

No iframes

iframes are not permitted on the iGEM wiki. If an iframe was used to access content outside of 2015.igem.org...

• it would break when the outside server had any problems
• it would allow a team to change/add content after the wiki freeze. Please note that altering content after the wiki freeze is a form of cheating

No Copyrighted Materials

Copyrighted images and other materials are not permitted on the iGEM wiki. (You may use materials that are appropriately licensed for reuse, such as open-source code or Creative Commons licensed images.)

2015.igem.org/Team:Team_Name

All iGEM 2015 teams are given a namespace on the iGEM 2015 wiki with their team name. Teams are allowed to create and edit pages within their respective team namespace. Teams are not allowed to create or edit pages belonging to another team's namespace.

Wiki Freeze - September 18

The wiki freeze for the 2015 Giant Jamboree is on September 18, along with other deadlines. iGEM experiences higher than normal traffic on this day which can lead to strain on our servers and sessions timing out for users. iGEM HQ recommends that users do not wait till the last day to work/finish their wikis. Once the wikis are frozen, users can no longer make any changes until they are unfrozen after the Jamboree.

Other deadlines

The team's project description must be documented on their iGEM Team Wiki by the deadline. The project description should be 1-3 paragraphs and only needs to include an up-to-date explanation of the project.

The team's wiki must include an attributions section.

Creative Commons

All content on this wiki is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (or any later version).

Wiki Dos and Don'ts

Wiki Editing

Add a wiki page, change a wiki page, delete a wiki page, etc.

All iGEM wiki sites are powered by Mediawiki. See the Mediawiki Help page for details on how to edit wiki pages and more.

Using/editing the wiki is a trial-and-error process. Editing the wiki is a simple, fun thing to do and you definitely get better the more you play around with it. The key is to take a look at other wiki pages and see what you like. Then all you have to do is go to the source (either view source if you're not logged in, or edit if you are logged in), copy it, and modify it to fit your needs. It doesn't have to be perfect before you can take a look at what it looks like. Try things out and see what results they yield.

Adding a page to your team's namespace?

You must keep your team's pages in your team namespace. For example, take a look at 2015.igem.org/Team:Example

Specifically, when you create a new page, you just have to name it Team:OFFICIAL team name/PageName. For example, if you were on Team Example and wanted to create a Biosensor project page you would name it Team:Example/Biosensor_project.

You should keep ALL your content within your team's namespace. This includes uploaded files, templates, CSS and Javascript pages, not just your main wiki pages.

Using html in wiki pages

Instead of using wiki markup, you can use HTML in the wiki editor. Just put your html code in between <html> ... </html> tags.

Using CSS and/or Javascript

You can also use CSS and Javascript on the wiki by adding your <style> and <script> tags into your <html> code.

If you want to use a CSS stylesheet or Javascript on multiple pages, you can create a wiki template page.

Using jQuery

jQuery 1.11.1 is already installed across all iGEM webpages. It adds many useful abilities to JavaScript. You do not need to include any extra source to use jQuery.

Using MathJax

MathJax is a JavaScript library for displaying mathematical equations. A copy of MathJax 2.5 is installed on 2015.igem.org. To use it, add the following line to your HTML:

For more information, visit the MathJax documentation.

Using Wiki Templates

If there is standard text/code that you want to add to more than one page, like a CSS style or script, then you can use MediaWiki templates

You can create a wiki template page to house your HTML/CSS/Javascript, by entering {{Team:YourTeamName/CSS}} into your wiki markup. Saving the page will create a link for a new template page, which you can edit and enter all of your CSS code. You can then call {{Team:YourTeamName/CSS}} on other pages.

Take a look at a few 2013 team wikis to see how other teams setup the styling. You can do this by going to a wiki, and looking for view source in the default wiki links at the top of the page. See MIT's and TU-Munich's for examples.

Uploading videos and using HTML 5 to display them

You can upload videos (ogg, mp4, webm) to the 2015 wiki by using Mediawiki's Upload tool.

You can display videos by using the HTML 5 <video> tag, along with <source src="file_url" type="video/ogg" />.

Take a look at the 2013 Leed's team wiki to see how they displayed their video. You can do this by going to their wiki, and looking for view source in the default wiki links at the top of the page.

Pages with Static Links

This year, we are requiring that information pertinent to specific prizes must appear on specific, static URLs on your wiki. Dynamically generated pages may not be understood correctly by the Judging Form.

Please review the Wiki Standard Pages requirements, and perhaps test your pages on the Judging Form to see if they are understood correctly. If they are not, you risk that the judges may not evaluate those parts of your wiki.

Need more technical details?

Visit our extra help page on Using HTML, CSS, and Javascript on the iGEM wikis.

Perspectives from an iGEM veteran

Hello iGEMers!
I was also part of an iGEM team!
In 2011 and 2012 my role was to design and create our team’s wiki. So wiki freeze was my major deadline. I am by no means an expert but let me share with you some of the things I learned with two wiki freezes under my belt.

1. Test your webpage layout: is information easy to find?

I made the terrible mistake of not asking for a third party’s opinion about the layout of information on our site. It was obvious for me how things were laid out and organized. It wasn’t for the people evaluating us.
Also, stick to the 3 click rule: content must reachable within 3 clicks so the user does not feel lost or confused. If someone wants to read your abstract, their path should be something like this (Menu –> Project –> Project Description -> Abstract)

2. Look at other teams’ code, see how they documented and what resources they used.

It is always good to get inspiration from other iGEM teams. See what you liked that they did and strive to improve!

3. Start working on your documentation early on.

This was a good thing that we did; we created a common file that more than one person can edit at a time. Divide the documentation into smaller files and assign a team member to fully document that topic. In the end you will have a printable version of your project that you can share as a pdf file with other people!

4. Name your images according to the project and keep them all in a folder on your computer.

Sometimes naming your gel image “gelthingy_whyiamworkingat3am” sounds perfect at 3AM but later it may not be easy to know what or when that photograph was taken or that image created.
Also, the iGEM database doesn’t know that you created that file so if someone names their file with the same name it can end up being replaced! Avoid using generic names like “banner.png” or “logo.jpg”.
Try using your team’s name and the webpage where the image will appear, this helps you remember where to place it and reduce the risk of another team overwriting. “JoyUniversity_TeamBios_Richard.jpg”

5. Do not leave everything to the last minute!

Plan ahead. The last thing you want to be doing at 11:30PM the night of wiki freeze is uploading images. It is very stressful to be looking at the clock and hoping some kind of coding miracle helps you fix bugs faster. Plan to have everything online at least one week ahead so you can go enjoy a nice dinner with your team that night!

I hope this helps and if you have any questions, feel free to email me or send me a tweet!

ana at igem dot org
@anita_sifuentes